It’s been so long since I’ve been on here that I actually forgot my password!

I know. I know. I said I’d post again when school started but life happens and I had more interesting things to do then sit at my computer tip-tapping away about my (non-existent) life. But. NOW. I am going to sit and tippy-tap at my computer about my life that I DO in fact have and I will not post as much as I used to. SO deal.

Oh I’m just warning you. This is coming off of watching a LOT of Jenna Marbles so I am a little hyper and like…idk Jenna Marble-ish…just warning you!

I had a great summer and a great fall. So far. I went to some parties. I met a lot of new people. I ran cross country and became amazing at running. Well, not amazing but pretty awesome. I mean life has been awesome. I’ve learned some lessons too.

1. Don’t give your heart away when you’re 15. Just don’t. No. You’re not going to get married. So, just don’t use the word ‘love’ unless you are talking to your friends that are girls or talking about some delicious food. Or cute animals.

2. School is important. In my family, we have a rule where we have to have all our homework done before we can go do fun things. So I just do it you know? Like easy as that. Okay I actually didn’t learn that lesson cause I already knew it. Disregard this.

3. Figure out who your real friends are. Hint: No matter how much you like them, they are not the ones who back-stab you, treat you unkindly, or ignore you. They ARE the ones who listen to your rants and then forgive you, apologize for what they did wrong without making excuses, listen to you, and are there for you when you need them.

4. Don’t do stuff on a whim. Like seriously? Whoever came up with the saying, “Follow your heart” was stupid. Don’t follow your head either. Just….get lots of advice. From a lot of different people. Of different ages.

5. You never know how people will react. If you haven’t already figured this out, I had a bit of a “relationship” through the past couple weeks. And I want to talk about it. It’s not secret anymore. But it was a big part of my life. And leaving it out would be leaving out a big part of who I have become. But the point of this lesson is that, some of the people I told about this who I thought would react in an “I told you so” fashion were actually the most sympathetic and understanding towards me. And some of the ones who I thought would care, just didn’t. So…don’t lose hope. Someone always cares.

6. Move on. Just do. And you need to find someone who will slap you upside the head and scream at you, “Move on.” But that person also has to hug you at those hard moments and tell you it’s gonna be okay. And she/he has to understand what you’re going through.

7. P!nk is awesome. Have you heard her new album? So amazing.

8. I know that I haven’t talked a lot about God on here in awhile. I actually had one of my readers talk to me about it. He said, “You know I really appreciated when you talked about God on here. Could you do that more?” And I said, “I really don’t feel like I am in a place where I could talk about how much I LOVE God and how wonderful He is and how much I am striving to live a godly life, when truthfully I’m not.” But I’m at a different place now. I don’t know. This summer was really great. I absolutely loved it. But it was hard too. A lot of self-discovery going on. And now I know myself a little better and I know what I want and being a Christian is definitely something that I want. I can’t imagine my life without Christianity a part of it. I do believe in God. I do want to please Him. I’m not perfect and you can’t always tell I am a Christian but I do love God. We are going to the most amazing church now and it really has been quite a wake-up call for me. So, I’m refocusing my life. This should be fun….

9. Injuries stink. I actually couldn’t run for the past two weeks because of a knee injury. It is serious deja vu. Ugh. Even with my stretching, I’m still side-lined. At my highest point over the cross-country season, I ran a 21:11 5k. My best time ever. And it was amazing. And today I ran for the first time in two weeks and I ran 2.6 miles. I couldn’t even run three miles. And I ran it in 21:25. I’m really trying to not let that upset me. Because I know that I am making a comeback. Oh, and the pain when I was done running those painfully slow 2 and a half miles? It was UNBEARABLE. I thought I was going to barf my knee hurt so bad. But I ran today. And that’s something! :) And I love cross country. I am so sad it’s over.

10. Friends are awesome. Guys. Friends are so important. I am so thankful for my friends. They are so good to me. I know I’m hyperactive. I know I talk a lot. I know that I can be sooo annoying. I know I can get a little obsessive. But they stick it out. Cause they love me. And knowing that is just really…sometimes the only thing I’m living for. I’m not in any way suicidal but, everyone has those days where they’re like, “What am I even doing? I should just run away and start over!” But I couldn’t. I couldn’t leave my friends. This includes my family. Cause even though they’re annoying, my brothers are so sweet and fun. And even though she yells at me for not doing the laundry, my sister is the one who is up at one in the morning making me laugh after a really. bad. day. And my parents, even though they annoy me sometimes, are really pretty great. So guys, find friends who love you and who will always believe the best of you and who will take you for who you are. And if you need someone to talk to, I’m here. Cause I know how important it is to have someone there to listen to you.

11. Contrary to popular belief, sleep actually DOES make the world go round. Those people who stay up till like three in the morning and then get up at six? Or those people who pull all-nighters? i have no idea what is wrong with them. I need my sleep. Which is why I will end my very random post now even though I could continue. Cause I need to go to bed. And I still have reading to do….

Firstly, everything was in favor of me! I was running the first race of the day. I was super excited and energized about the race. It was perfect weather. The course is awesome.

So I knew everything would be good.

But I was a little nervous because of how poorly my race on Tuesday went.

But other than that I had no reason to be nervous!

Okay so a really important part of a race is the course, obviously! If it’s hillier it will be harder, etc. But this course was really awesome! I really loved it! It was a loop that we ran four times and it was really pretty and relatively flat. There was one hill but it was not very steep and it was on the straight part of the course so it was fine.

I am really bad at starts on races which is why the longer the race is, the better I do because I have time to gain back the time lost at the start. But, I had a good start at this race and because of the loop course I had an easier time making up that lost time because I got used to the course. I ran in ninth place pretty much the whole race, switching between seventh through ninth on the second and third laps. Two other girls from my team and I ran basically the whole race together which is awesome because I know that I wouldn’t have done as well as I did if I hadn’t had them to pull me along. I was behind both of them but then in the sprinting region by the finish line I passed one girl and finished between them.

I forgot to mention yesterday (not sure HOW this slipped my mind) but not only did I place but I also PR’d! I finished yesterday’s 3-mile race with a time of 21:11 which is a personal best for me in my entire running career!

So that’s also awesome! =)

And after my race, I cheered for all the other races and screamed my throat out and had fun hanging out with my friends! =)

And then we went out for lunch afterwards.

And I came home at 4:30 and was exhausted.

And I passed out mid-conversation at 10:30 last night.

And I was exhausted all day today until I had some Mountain Dew. Then I was insane.

I took a nap too. Which I never do.

I labeled yesterday “The Most Exhausting Day of My Life!!!!!!” or “TMEDoML” for short. That’s not really short.

On Thursday we ran a 50-minute tempo run. I was on top of the clouds after that run.

And today I ran at an invitational and placed 8th in the Frosh/Soph race.

And because I got six hours of sleep last night and was up at six this morning and have been running (pun intended) since then, that’s all I’m going to write for now because I am very very tired and need some sleep!

But now I’ve calmed down slightly (the dinner time rant helped a bit) so here’s what I have to say to you all.

If you are training for a new time for your 5k, don’t run only 3.1 miles during your practice runs. Do us all a favor and run FOUR miles! Or FIVE! Or even more than that! Because then! When you get to the actual race, it will seem like a piece of cake! Brilliant thoughts guys!

If you are training for a 10k, then run more than 6.2 miles. Guys, this is elementary stuff but it’s so insanely clever! Because the more miles you are logging the better you are getting. It’s just the way it is.

So run more miles.

That’s the one and ONLY thing that I don’t like about cross country. Yes we are running every day, but we only run about three miles every day. Which is actually less than I used to run.

I slogged through our warm-up run and our pick-up run and our strides and I knew that today wouldn’t be the best race ever.

It was not the best race ever.

It wasn’t even a good race.

I’m pretty sure that was my worst race ever.

I don’t even know what my time was on it. But I do know that I felt horrible the whole time. My legs are so so tight and I need to roll them out but I haven’t gotten around to it. I wanted to lay down and cry. Or sleep. Either would have worked.

But I kept running. Cause I had to.

That’s the great thing about running on a team or even just in a group. You can’t stop. You can’t slow down. You have to keep going. You gotta stay with the pack. If this had been one of my own runs by myself? I would NOT have finished it. I would have just stopped after two miles when I couldn’t bear to go on for one more second, but obviously I had to keep going! It’s a race! You can’t stop. So I kept going. Even though I didn’t want to. And I finished. Even though it was hard.

I hope you guys are all in a great mood today! Cause I most certainly am!

I wasn’t…

but it was nothing a little running couldn’t fix!

See, it wasn’t actually even today’s workout that put me in a great mood! It was my workout on Friday and then something I READ today that put me in a great mood!

Friday was our first meet. It was 95 degrees. I was NOT in a racing mood.

But when the race was over, I knew it had been a good one.

First and foremost, when I crossed the line I used up my last ounce of energy. When you hit the complete rock-bottom feeling just as you cross the finish line you know that it was the best you could possible have done. So, that was my first clue that I had done well.

The second clue was…well….there weren’t really that many runners at the finish line when I got there. I mean, that’s pretty obvious. I would have counted then to see what my placing was but since the first five minutes after I finished I just walked around trying not to die, my counting would have been very inaccurate…

The third clue is that my brother told me that he counted 17 people come in before me. Now, obviously this is like a major clue…but I didn’t want to get TOO excited in case he had counted wrong or had completely made it up (he has been known, on occasion, to do that).

Anyways, I had to wait all weekend to see my time and placing and it was a little nerve-wracking, a lot exciting though. I knew that whatever the results were I would just have to accept it and move on.

But

I’m so happy.

With a time of 21:53, I came in 18th overall and 8th on my team! This was not only a perfect debut for my coaches but also vaulted me into the top 12 on the team, allowing me to practice with varsity girls!

First day of practicing with varsity girls: 90 degrees. Soooooo hot. And hard. I thought I would fall over. Literally.

But I’m glad I get to practice with them and be severely challenged so I can get FASTER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I was incredibly tired. It wasn’t only just being tired cause I’m pretty much used to that but also because it was one of those days where I really Really REALLY felt that tiredness.

I didn’t feel like rolling out of bed. I didn’t feel like getting dressed. I didn’t feel like biking to the high school. I got tired during the WARM-UP run! That was when I knew that it was gonna be a death workout. If you get winded during the warm-up run, then you know you’re in for it during the ACTUAL workout!

And today was intervals.

I thought I was going to die.

Or cry.

Or just fall over.

Or just stop.

Or even slow down!

But no. Coach told me to stay at the front of my pack. Then, I had to speed up to stay with the girls at the front! Last week, I was the one breezing through the 600’s. This week, I felt like a turtle that was about to keel over. Yet I still managed to hold my pace (just sticking that in there for a little bit of glorification….) constant and relatively fast.

At this point in the story, you are probably wondering how me feeling like I’m gonna die makes me like cross country. Well, I haven’t gotten to that yet.

See, the fantastic part is that I have all these girls around me, cheering me on! One of the varsity girls came and ran the last 600 next to me and pushed me to keep up with the front of the pack. She knew my name! How did she know my name? I have no idea. I don’t know who she was! But she was my saving grace.

And then there’s Kathleen. We are each other’s personal cheerleaders. When one of us needs it, the other one is there pushing us to give it our best and last shots. It’s awesome. I would be so much slower without her.

And those are just two! All the girls are so encouraging. The older ones give me tips which is nice! And when I say “Bye” I’m greeted by a chorus of “Bye Claire!” and “Great job today!” and “Way to stick with it”! And all those sweet little things! It’s so awesome. Cause I know they really mean it. Cause they’re nice like that. And they really care. And words of encouragement is so my love language!